| Joel McNeely | |
| Background: | non_performing_personnel |
| Birth Date: | 1959 3, mf=yes |
| Birth Place: | Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Instrument: | Piano, organ, keyboard, backing vocals |
| Genre: | Film score, pop, jazz |
| Occupation: | Composer, arranger, pianist, musician, songwriter, producer |
| Years Active: | 1986–present |
| Label: | Universal Republic, Republic |
| Associated Acts: | Seth MacFarlane |
Joel McNeely (born March 28, 1959) is an American composer, conductor, arranger, musician, lyricist, and record producer. A protégé of composer Jerry Goldsmith, he is best known for his film and television scores. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for his work on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He frequently collaborates with Seth MacFarlane and contributes to various projects by The Walt Disney Company.
Joel McNeely was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Both of his parents were involved in music and theater, and as a child he played the piano, saxophone, bass, and flute. He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, studied jazz at the University of Miami, and earned a master's degree as a composition major at the Eastman School of Music.
LucasArts chose McNeely to compose the soundtrack to the 1996 Star Wars video game, Shadows of the Empire, while incorporating the themes from the films by John Williams. This was an experimental project where he conveyed general moods and themes instead of writing music to flow for specific scenes.
He is also known for conducting a series of re-recordings of film scores by Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, John Barry, and other composers under the label of Varèse Sarabande, including those Herrmann wrote for Vertigo, Psycho and Citizen Kane. He also composed the score for The Avengers and the theme and music for FOX's Dark Angel. Additionally, he scored the movies Terminal Velocity, Iron Will (which was used in the teaser trailer to Toy Story, the theatrical trailer to Balto, the direct-to-video trailer to Balto III: Wings of Change, and the VHS trailer to Mulan), Flipper, Gold Diggers, Samantha, Virus, and I Know Who Killed Me. He also scored a multitude of Disney animated films (Mulan II, Return to Never Land, The Jungle Book 2, Tinker Bell and many others).
Currently McNeely scores occasional episodes of the FOX animated TV series American Dad!, since the fourth season replacing Ron Jones who left to focus more on composing for Family Guy, including the episode with the Back to the Future parody, and the season five premiere (among others).
McNeely is also composed the score for Disneyland Pariss Entertainment Shows including: Disney Dreams! & Mickey And The Magician.
McNeely has produced three of Seth MacFarlane's studio albums, including 2011's Music Is Better Than Words, 2014's Holiday for Swing,[1] and 2017's In Full Swing.
In 2017, he composed a score for MacFarlane's new series, The Orville, along with Bruce Broughton and John Debney.
| width = 30px | Year | width = 300px | Title | width = 150px | Director(s) | width = 250px | Studio(s) | width = 150px | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | You Talkin' to Me? | ||||||||
| 1988 | Splash, Too | TV movie | |||||||
| 1989 | Parent Trap III | Mollie Miller | Television film | ||||||
| Polly | TV movie | ||||||||
| Mollie Miller | Television film |
| width = 30px | Year | width = 300px | Title | width = 150px | Director(s) | width = 250px | Studio(s) | width = 150px | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Hitler's Daughter | TV movie | |||||||
| Polly: Comin' Home! | TV movie | ||||||||
| 1991 | Frankenstein: The College Years | TV movie | |||||||
| Samantha | Stephen La Rocque | Academy Entertainment | |||||||
| 1992 | Lady Against the Odds | Bradford May | TV movie | ||||||
| US version | |||||||||
| 1994 | Iron Will | ||||||||
| Radioland Murders | |||||||||
| Xavier Koller Christopher Stoia | |||||||||
| Terminal Velocity | |||||||||
| 1995 | Kevin James Dobson | ||||||||
| 1996 | Flipper | Alan Shapiro | |||||||
| 1997 | Vegas Vacation | Stephen Kessler | |||||||
| Wild America | |||||||||
| Buffalo Soldiers | TV movie | ||||||||
| Air Force One | Wolfgang Petersen | Columbia PicturesBeacon Pictures | Additional music onlyScore Composed by Piotr Olszewski (2008) | ||||||
| 1998 | The Avengers | Replaced Michael Kamen. | |||||||
| Zack and Reba | Nicole Bettauer | ||||||||
| Soldier | |||||||||
| 1999 | Virus | ||||||||
| Road Rage | TV movie |
| width = 30px | Year | width = 300px | Title | width = 150px | Director(s) | width = 250px | Studio(s) | width = 150px | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Sally Hemings: An American Scandal | TV movie | |||||||
| Santa Who? | TV movie | ||||||||
| 2001 | Lover's Prayer | Reverge Anselmo | |||||||
| 2002 | Return to Never Land | ||||||||
| 2003 | The Jungle Book 2 | Steve Trenbirth | |||||||
| Ghosts of the Abyss | Ascot Elite Golden Village Walden Media Walt Disney Pictures (North America) UGC Fox Distribution (International) | ||||||||
| Holes | |||||||||
| Destino | Short film | ||||||||
| Uptown Girls | |||||||||
| 2004 | Stateside | Reverge Anselmo | |||||||
| America's Heart and Soul | |||||||||
| Mulan II | Darrell Rooney Lynne Southerland | Direct-to-video film | |||||||
| The Stepford Wives | Frank Oz | Paramount PicturesDreamworks Pictures | Additional Music onlyScore Composed by Piotr Olszewski | ||||||
| 2005 | Pooh's Heffalump Movie | Frank Nissen | |||||||
| Direct-to-video film | |||||||||
| 2006 | Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure | ||||||||
| The Fox and the Hound 2 | Direct-to-video film | ||||||||
| 2007 | Frank Nissen | Direct-to-video film | |||||||
| I Know Who Killed Me | |||||||||
| 2008 | Tinker Bell | Direct-to-video film | |||||||
| 2009 | Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure | Direct-to-video film |
| width = 30px | Year | width = 300px | Title | width = 150px | Director(s) | width = 250px | Studio(s) | width = 150px | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue | Direct-to-video film | |||||||
| 2011 | Pixie Hollow Games | Television special | |||||||
| 2012 | Secret of the Wings | Direct-to-video film | |||||||
| 2014 | The Pirate Fairy | Direct-to-video film | |||||||
| A Million Ways to Die in the West | |||||||||
| Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast[2] | Direct-to-video film |
| Years | Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986–1988 | Our House | ||
| 1988 | Blue Skies | Episode: "Something Wold, Something New" | |
| 1989 | The Wonder Years | Episode: "Square Dance" | |
| 1990 | Tiny Toon Adventures | 3 episodes | |
| 1991 | Darkwing Duck | Episode: "Beauty and the Beet" | |
| 1992 | The Plucky Duck Show | 2 episodes | |
| 1992–1993 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | 9 episodes | |
| 1998 | Buddy Faro | ||
| 2000–2002 | Dark Angel | ||
| 2001 | All Souls | ||
| 2002 | The Court | ||
| 2009–present | American Dad! | ||
| 2017–present | The Orville | with John Debney, Bruce Broughton (Pilot and theme only) and Andrew Cottee |